Owner of roofing company in Miami condo controversy arrested

Roofing company owner David Taylor has been arrested in Broward County on charges of fraud because one of his enterprises failed to make workers compensation payments for its employees, authorities announced Friday.

Taylor’s arrest by the Division of Insurance Fraud came three weeks after el Nuevo Herald and Univision 23 revealed that another Taylor company had won a million dollar roofing contract in a Miami-Dade condo — competing against two alleged ghost companies.

Taylor’s lawyer, Michael Reppas, did not reply to el Nuevo Herald’s requests for comment on the arrest.

Taylor, 50, was arrested Thursday morning, processed at the central Broward jail in Fort Lauderdale and freed after paying a $1,000 bail, according to public records.

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Taylor Contracting and Roofing Inc. had been fined $279,538 for failing to make workers compensation payments for five of its workers.

Records show the Florida Department of Financial Affairs issued a “stop work” order in February of 2014 requiring the company to stop all work in the state until the fine was paid. The state eventually put a lien on the company for the amount owed.

Bank records obtained as part of the official investigation showed that Taylor’s company did not obey the order and carried out work at the Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox church in Fort Lauderdale.

Between April and October of 2014, the church paid Taylor Contracting & Roofing Inc. a total of $208,842 for repairs to the roof of its temple, the documents showed.

In 2015, the Division of Insurance Fraud in the Department of Financial Affairs received complaints that Taylor’s company was violating the “stop work” order.

But by then Taylor already had created another company, D&T General Contracting, Inc, which won a $5.2 million contract to repair the roofs of the 12 buildings in The Beach Club condominiums at Fontainebleau Park.

The investigation by el Nuevo Herald and Univision 23 revealed that only two paper companies linked to Taylor employees had bid on the job. They were Tri-County Inc., based in Weston, and Northeast Contracting, based in Plantation.

When journalists visited the addresses listed by the two companies, they turned out to be homes whose current residents denied that any businesses operated there.

Taylor holds two licenses, set to expire Aug. 31, registered with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, one as a general contractor and another as a roofing contractor.

More than 50 Beach Club owners held a public protest and demanded the resignation of the board of directors after learning about the paper companies in the bid process, as well as the falsification of the signatures of at least 84 owners on votes for the board’s elections in November.

The following day, the board members resigned and owners canceled the contract with Sunshine Management Services, which had been managing the condominium.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro has proposed creating a special unit to combat condo fraud. The proposal has the backing of Miami-Dade Police Department Director Juan J. Perez and would be staffed by detectives from several police departments.